The carrot and stick approach has always been an effective tactic.

The two brothers, Cole and Helle, dared not make any move and jogged to squat beside Lam.

Entering the quarantine chamber at least gives a chance of survival, but if Cheng Ye decides to shoot them as infected bodies now, they'd be left calling out to the heavens and the earth to no avail.

"Sir..."

"Shut up!"

Noticing Cheng Ye coming over, as soon as Simo opened his mouth, he was ruthlessly cut off by Cheng Ye.

"Whatever I'm about to do next, you have to endure it, or else go to quarantine, understand?"

"I understand, I understand!"

Realizing there was hope for survival, Simo's weary eyes suddenly brightened, gaining some vitality.

Unlike the Central Main Inspection Station, which only conducts temperature, pulse, and respiratory rate checks on refugee survivors, and isolates or expels anyone with abnormal data.

The passers at the rapid inspection station are mostly residents of Happiness City, and to balance efficiency with accuracy, additional detection equipment is provided.

Cheng Ye raised his hand and swiped his identity badge over the black box on the table.

Click.

The latch popped open, revealing two brand new instruments rarely used by inspectors, along with a scalpel and a metal tray.

Vital sign bimodal detector.

Rotting light metabolism detector.

The former can be handheld for imaging, providing a real-time general depiction of the examinee's insides via the screen on its body.

The latter specializes in wound detection: under light with a specific wavelength, infected areas emit visible fluorescence.

If it matches the internal infection source data, the fluorescence appears glaring red; if not, it shows a normal green.

It sounds quite useful, but why are they brand new?

The answer is simple: there's no need.

In the quarantine chamber of Zone A, nearly three hundred people are confined; although there are infected bodies, at least over ninety-five percent are fine; otherwise, who would dare to venture outside?

But few inspectors wish to take responsibility; when encountering cases of data anomalies without clear reasons, rather than checking step by step, they typically prefer to directly determine a high infection risk and throw them into the quarantine chamber for a while.

As for whether they can emerge alive, it's never part of their concerns.

Even if an explanation was needed, there was a ready excuse:

We are considering the tens of thousands of people in the Buffer Zone; we can't risk them for your sake, can we?

"Can you still move?"

"Yes, I can!"

"Follow my instructions, rotate your body."

The so-called bimodal refers to the micro-focus CT module and photoacoustic imaging module.

Cheng Ye had never seen it in modern times; this was his first time using it.

But judging from the displayed image, it's indeed quite clear, only slightly inferior to hospital scans.

On the screen, a small grey humanoid model rotated back and forth, with the right leg showing a faint red warning light.

After internal processing magnification, the muscle fibers at the bite were seen to radiate in tears, while the tissue around the wound showed large areas of low-density shadow, resembling a sponge corroded by strong acid.

As for the rest of the body, all displayed circular or irregular high-density shadows, characteristic shapes of hemorrhagic foci due to the high density of hemoglobin.

"No problem... there's only this bite wound, other places are bruises and abrasions."

Cheng Ye let out a slight sigh of relief.

The narrative logic was fine, focusing the infection detection on the wound appearance.

Now with only this one wound on the leg, the probability of infection became significantly smaller.

After all, as Brother B said, the infected body's attacks are unpredictable; once it targets a person, it pounces like a mad dog, impossible to focus on just one spot.

Activate the rotting light metabolism detector!

The faint green light source illuminated the leg wound, quickly showing green fluorescence, with no red light.

This meant if it were caused by an infected body attack.

The infected body could only be similar to the Rotting Vine, unregistered in Happiness City's database.

The probability diminishes yet again.

"There's one last procedure. I need to cut a piece of your flesh. Can you endure it?"

"What?"

Simo was suddenly stunned, then his face showed uncontrollable ecstasy.

What did he hear?

One last procedure?

Oh my, God, is this inspector sent by God as an angel?

"Sir, cut as you please. Cut this leg off, it doesn't matter, I can endure it!"

"Not that exaggerated, just a small piece will do."

Cheng Ye pulled out a slight smile, not to ease Simo's emotions, but to ease his own nervousness.

Shooting at infected bodies didn't make him flinch, because he knew in his heart that they were no longer human.

Subconsciously treating them as monsters was no different from shooting wooden stakes.

But now he had to wield a knife on a living person, which made him somewhat inexplicably nervous.

Fortunately, the scalpel in the box was exceptionally sharp. Cheng Ye found an area on the wound edge and lightly scraped it, cutting off a piece of flesh the size of a pinky nail.

To his surprise, Simo showed no expression, making Cheng Ye quietly marvel inside.

Impressive.

If it were the 'Super Sweet Candy' boy band brothers, they'd probably be howling three miles away by now.

"Raven, take this piece of flesh and check for infection source matches, quickly!"

"Understood, Sir!"

As the four were being checked, both Raven and Owl were already waiting outside the quarantine door.

From the observer's perspective, Cheng Ye's actions were somewhat baffling; there was absolutely no need to go to such lengths for a few ordinary people.

But from the perspective of ordinary people, their feelings were complex, and for a moment they didn't know how to comment.

They could only quicken their pace, sending them to the laboratory building at Inspection Station E Zone for matching.

Time passed by minute by minute.

More than ten minutes later, Raven returned and slipped a note through the isolation door.

"Is there a problem?"

Cheng Ye frowned slightly, took it, and saw that it said normal.

He then realized that this observer was really clever; if he had shouted out so the three could hear, it would have undoubtedly stolen his thunder as the inspector. Letting Cheng Ye announce it himself was the savvy career move.

"Alright, you three don't sneak a peek there anymore, put on your clothes and come over."

Returning to the table, Cheng Ye said softly.

The next second, the three of them sprang up to Simo as if springs were installed under their feet.

"Thank you, my lord, thank you, my lord!"

The four of them hugged and cried, their sobs catching in Cheng Ye's throat, leaving him at a loss for words.

What an absurd world.

He merely did the duty of an inspector, completely following the standard inspection procedures in the inspector's manual, and was worshipped like a deity.

It's not that I'm too good; it's that this inspection station is rotten to the core.

Cheng Ye thought to himself, then suddenly changed his mind.

If the ethos of the entire Happiness City is like this, what if one day, he encounters a similar situation where he has to rely on others to survive?

"The sense of crisis is maxed out. I'm afraid everyone in this Buffer Zone is climbing upward to avoid this day from coming."

When the four's crying gradually subsided, Cheng Ye withdrew his thoughts.

"You just mentioned you had something else to give me?"

"Oh, oh, it's meteorite iron, it's meteorite iron we collected from the Green Stone Gathering Place!"

Cole slapped his head, hurriedly ran to the trunk, and pulled out a fist-sized piece of black ore.

"My lord, look, this thing is very hard, we don't know its composition, maybe you'd like to keep it for fun?"

"Meteorite iron?"

Cheng Ye took the ore and pinched it, feeling a cold, hard sensation at his fingertip.

Judging from its appearance, there was nothing special, completely unlike the fire storage iron he saw before.

"Just in time for when we pick up weapons the afternoon after tomorrow, I'll let Master Liu take a look."

Cheng Ye nodded in satisfaction.

If this raw ore doesn't have action functionality, he basically can't use it.

But with action functionality, find a forging skill, then secure some forging equipment, he could freely craft various weapons.

"I'll keep this since I can find some use for it, but you should take these Happiness Coins back."

Cheng Ye said, pushing the six coins on the table back to them.

Happiness Coins are not very useful in the Buffer Zone. What he wanted could only be bought with contribution points. Moreover, the Happiness Coins left by Cheng Long might take ages to be spent.

"My lord..."

"Alright, I'll keep one, just to make you feel at ease."

Seeing the four staring at him eagerly, Cheng Ye sighed helplessly, "If you come across more of this kind of ore in the future, you can bring it to me. My Defense Communication ID is 96061."

"Got it, my lord! Rest assured, we'll bring any ore directly to you first!"

Cole's eyes suddenly brightened.

The opportunity to connect with an inspector was truly a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and not just any Eastern People inspector, but even if it were just a dog sitting behind the desk, ahem...

It can only be said that such is the power of authority.

But then again, Cheng Ye is indeed different from other inspectors.

The four exchanged glances, the joy in their eyes reflecting off each other. The lithionite reward could provide them with a substantial starting fund, and having a reliable inspector on their side could save them from a lot of trouble.

Having struggled in Happiness City for nearly five years, if this succeeded, it would truly be catching the wind and taking off!

"Quickly take him for treatment, get moving, this leg can probably still be saved."

"Thank you, my lord."

The four nodded repeatedly in agreement, as Cole leaped into the driver's seat and started the car, while Helle helped the other two back into the rear cabin.

Cheng Ye pressed a button, and the isolation door at the exit slowly slid to the sides.

However, just as Cole was excitedly waving his hand and preparing to hit the gas and leave.

Boom.

The newly opened isolation door suddenly slammed shut, the metal collision was deafening.

At the same time, the whole inspection station erupted into a piercing alarm, with two long and two short buzzes echoing through the empty station.

"What's going on?"

The four looked up in confusion, only to see Cheng Ye and the inspector from Zone B next door also rising in shock.

It was as if a bomb had been thrown into the inspection station, and in the midst of the blaring alarms, hundreds of armed guards surged out of the four quarantine zones as if facing a formidable enemy!

"Two long, two short—the highest level of alert at the inspection station. It's either an infected tide crisis or..."

Cheng Ye suddenly turned around, and the four brothers followed his gaze.

Atop the inspection station's machine gun tower, two flags had been raised at an unknown time.

One was blood-red, the other as white as paper.

It meant...

"Red for danger, white for sacrifice, a red and white double flag means..."

Cheng Ye's voice suddenly deepened, "Has the duty station chief been killed!?"

...

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